Jutta Viinikainen, Petri Böckerman, Marko Elovainio, Christian Hakulinen, Mirka Hintsanen, Mika Kähönen, Jaakko Pehkonen, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Olli Raitakari and Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen
A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines…
Abstract
Purpose
A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict workers' selection into non-routine abstract, non-routine service and routine jobs.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the work by Barrick et al. (2013), this article first presents how the theory of purposeful work behaviour can be used to explain how individuals with different levels of Type A components sort into abstract, service and routine jobs. Then, using longitudinal data, it examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict occupational sorting. Estimations were performed based on the linear regression method.
Findings
The results show that the Type A dimension “leadership” was associated with a higher level of abstract and service job tasks in occupation. High eagerness-energy and responsibility were also positively linked with occupation's level of abstract tasks. These results suggest that workers sort into jobs that allow them to pursue higher-order implicit goals.
Originality/value
Job market polarisation towards low-routine jobs has had a pervasive influence on the labour market during the past few decades. Based on high-quality data that combine prime working-age register information on occupational attainment with information about personality characteristics, the findings contribute to our knowledge of how personality characteristics contribute to occupational sorting in terms of this important job aspect.
Details
Keywords
Jutta Viinikainen, Katja Kokko, Lea Pulkkinen and Jaakko Pehkonen
– The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on labor market careers of dropouts with various levels of education.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on labor market careers of dropouts with various levels of education.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper compares the labor market careers of dropouts and non-dropouts between ages 15 and 50 by using longitudinal data. The paper analyses how the results change when the authors control for differences in personality characteristics.
Findings
The paper finds that dropping out diminishes one's success in the labor market but this connection is reduced when the model is augmented with personality. Dropouts seem to have or lack certain personality characteristics that are associated with labor market success. These findings suggest that dropping out is either an adverse signal of non-cognitive skills and, thus, work performance and productivity, or personality characteristics are related to preferences toward career and work orientation, or both.
Originality/value
The paper analyses how the impact of dropping out on labor market outcomes changes when differences in personality characteristics are taken into account. The broad definition enables us to investigate how dropping out in general is related to labor market success.